Bobby Short Gives Powerful Twist To Porter

October 25, 1991|By Howard Reich, Entertainment writer.

It wasn`t billed as such, but Bobby Short`s opening-night show at the Gold Star Sardine Bar amounted to a rambunctious 100th anniversary party for Cole Porter. And in a year when such tribute performances have been overflowing, this one stood among the best.

Like Porter, who was born in Peru, Ind., Short started life in a small Midwestern town (Danville, Ill.), eventually transforming himself,

unmistakably, into an urban sophisticate. Even if Porter and Short came from opposite sides of the tracks (Porter was born wealthy, Short anything but), Short performs this music as if tutored by the composer himself.

For this listener, in fact, only one other male singer handles Porter as idiomatically as Short, and that`s another fellow who outgrew his small-town beginnings-the pride of Hoboken, N.J., Frank Sinatra. Though Sinatra`s Porter surely will always stand as definitive, particularly in his glorious recordings with Nelson Riddle`s arrangements, Short`s Porter has an urgency and dramatic power all its own.

On this occasion, Thursday`s opening of a three-night stint at the Gold Star, Short outdid even himself, consistently increasing the emotional intensity of his readings. Throughout a generous set, he took tempos at extremes of fast and slow, sang ballads at a roar and ultimately approached these songs with a ferocity many artists would not dare.

``From This Moment On,`` for instance, saw Short shrewdly shifting from impassioned singing to declamatory speaking and back. This was Porter cast in an unusually oratorical mode, and yet, somehow, it never tipped into bombast. With Short apparently using every whit of lungpower, meanwhile backing himself with ebullient arpeggios on piano, he simply swept away all doubts.

Any worthy Cole Porter evening must include the most famous number

in the canon, ``Night and Day,`` and Short eloquently captured the after-dark mystery of this piece. Though it`s too bad he omitted the verse (which is essential to the song`s structure), he offered a gently seductive tempo that, you can be sure, takes a lifetime to find.

Of the moments not devoted to Porter, none was more moving than Short`s version of ``Body and Soul.`` Many musicians choose to whisper Johnny Green`s famous tune, but Short scoffed at tradition. Though his tempo was slow, his sound was big, robust and imploring.

That was typical, in fact, of Short`s tack throughout this show, which suggested he`s in an exuberant mood these days. The evidence included several blues numbers, one sounding raunchier than the last; an expansive version of Duke Ellington`s ``I Got It Bad (And That Ain`t Good)``; and the Gershwins`

``I`ve Got a Crush on You,`` for once sung at the proper, double-time tempo.

Assisted by Beverly Peer`s bass, Robb Scott`s drums and his own decidedly extroverted piano, Short gave this show everything he had to give-and that`s saying a great deal.